Multiple disciplines in operation today may benefit from kinematic analysis adapted to capture movements and postures of the human body. Realistic animations for movies and computer games, for example, utilize kinematic analysis systems to more accurately capture movements of a human actor that may then be mapped onto an avatar hosted by the movie and/or computer game environment. In virtually all sports disciplines, kinematic analysis systems may be used to analyze and improve the performance of athletes by helping to analyze, for example, the athlete's vertical jump technique. In various medicinal disciplines, kinematic analysis systems may be used to evaluate and treat, for example, abnormal gait patterns.
In addition to kinematic analysis, conventional biomechanical assessment laboratories may also provide electromyographic (EMG) technologies, such as surface EMG (sEMG), to implement non-invasive procedures involving the detection, recording and interpretation of the electric activity of groups of muscles at rest and during activity. Still other assessment technologies employed by conventional biomechanical assessment laboratories may include kinetic assessment tools that may help to analyze causes of motion such as human strength and power.
The sensing of human movement employed by conventional biomechanical assessment laboratories may include the use of inertial and magnetic sensor modules to measure, for example, body segment orientation. Such inertial and magnetic sensors may measure the motion of each body segment to which they are attached and may include such measurements independently of other systems with respect to a particular reference system (e.g., an earth-fixed reference system). Such sensors may, for example, include any one or more of the following: 1) gyroscopes for measuring angular velocity; 2) accelerometers for measuring acceleration including gravity; and 3) magnetometers for measuring the earth's magnetic field. Knowledge as to any one or more of the EMG, kinetic and kinematic sets of sensor output data may be further combined with video data to augment analyses that may be performed by conventional biomechanical assessment laboratories.
Conventional sensor platforms, however, are tailored specifically to a particular sensing function. Each sensing function that may be required by a conventional biomechanical assessment laboratory, therefore, necessitates the use of specialized sensor platforms tailored to that specific sensor function even though many of the functions of the sensor platforms are duplicative (e.g., each sensor platform may include a battery, a processor and a memory). Accordingly, the use of customized sensor types may inefficiently utilize sensor functions due to their replication across all customized sensors.
Efforts continue, therefore, to develop more efficient sensor types.